Seán Moran on how John McIntyre's Offaly hurlers must prepare for a summer championship date with mighty Kilkenny on a diet of mediocre league fare in Division Two.

It may not be absolutely crucial but a fixture buried in Division Two of this weekend's Allianz National Hurling League will have greater tension about it than many of the more obvious matches. Offaly travel to Mullingar to face Westmeath, the one side with even a remote chance of defeating them in this year's league.

It's an uncomfortable situation. In theory Offaly should romp the division but in practice there are still teams out there who want to compete and who are encouraged at the sight of a major hurling county down on its luck and in the neighbourhood.

Offaly manager John McIntyre noticed it last week. As his team warmed up he noticed that opponents Derry were very intent on their own pre-match routines.

"They were clearly up for it," he says, "and it was only 20 minutes into the second half that we stamped our authority on the match. There was anxiety on our line at various stages. Everyone pays lip service to hurling minnows but now we've got the practical perspective on it."

Offaly's tumble out of the top tier last year was desperately unfortunate. They had failed to qualify for the Top Six phase only on scoring difference but managed to lose all three of their second-phase matches, a sequence that included a weird hammering from Dublin.

This isn't just a simple matter of restoring their status after an embarrassing lapse. The new championship format restricts the senior line-up to the 12 counties in Division One. Fortunately for Offaly this year's field is based on the 2004 National League but if they're not back in the top flight next year they're out of the loop.

Taken in tandem with the demands of shaping a team in transition the position of Offaly manager doesn't look that appetising: on a hiding to nothing in the league and without elite opposition to test emerging players plus a championship date with Kilkenny next June.

McIntyre will have none of the despondency that hangs like a mist over general perceptions of the county's prospects.

"If I was interested in taking the job but put off by Offaly's position in the league my heart wouldn't have been in it. Offaly were desperately unlucky last year but that's not going to win us matches now. We have to build up a sequence of good performances and establish a winning pattern.

"My task is to build up confidence among the players and the squad because there's a lot of pessimism around and outside the county we're perceived as no-hopers. It's easy to sum us up as a side that will be happy to get out of Division Two and come within a few points of Kilkenny. But that's not the way it is. Like any county we're aspiring to win an All-Ireland."

He knows that such aspirations in Offaly simply make the hurling public's eyes glaze over. But he's hugely enthusiastic about finding out how far he can bring a developing team. He'd have to be. McIntyre was a surprising choice for the job.

Seven years ago he held the reins in the county for one season and was generally held to have been shabbily treated when dropped smartly after defeat in a Leinster semi-final by then All-Ireland champions Wexford. He's amused by the astonishment that has greeted his decision to accept the offer of a second tour of duty.

"Offaly was my first intercounty appointment and I'm still grateful for the chance I got with the county. Maybe it ended quicker than I would have liked but it's different this time around: a different group of players. Back then they had All-Ireland medals, now they're in transition.

"If I wanted to come back to try and finish a job that I started in 1997 that would be purely selfish. I've always been an underdogs' man. The teams I tend to work with aren't ones with great deeds and great achievements stretching back into history. They tend to be trying to win for the first time or to get back to the top.

"That aspect of Offaly suits me. My challenge is working with the players to try and prove the overall image of Offaly hurling wrong. Odds of 66 to 1 for the All-Ireland and 10 to 1 for Leinster are an insult."

For someone with just one year's intercounty management experience McIntyre, a former Tipperary hurler, is very high profile thanks to his success as a club coach in Galway (taking Clarinbridge to the 2002 All-Ireland final) and his occasional work as broadcast hurling analyst.

It's not a status he particularly wants: "Offaly's off the radar at the moment and I'd be as happy keeping it that way until the summer."

But he is also a journalist - sports editor of the Connacht Tribune group of newspapers - and knows that in what can be a cold house for reporters, he will get tapped for the odd bit of warmth. So there he was at the end of last season, contemplating a less hectic lifestyle when the call came.

"It was the last thing on my mind. I'd completed four years with Clarinbridge and was looking forward to the break and loosely planning to play one more year with Lorrha (his home club in Tipperary) - even though I turn 44 in June. It was my own form of madness, an attempt to turn back the clock."

The clock, however, ticks onward and he's back in management complete with its exhausting commutes, a team currently ravaged by injury and a little haunted by the uncertainty of what the future holds.

McIntyre's work has started and he is positive about the response. "The attitude of the players is good. They know we're light years removed from the standard they want to be at but they're willing to work through the situation. There's no sense of self-pity because they're in Division Two."

Drawing Kilkenny in the championship has hung like a death sentence over teams in recent times. Last year Wexford caused a sensation by plotting successfully to escape the scaffold but that coup has surely diminished the chances of any recurrence.

Mindful of what he knows will be a pumped-up challenge, Offaly's manager isn't losing sleep: "The prospect of facing Kilkenny is like going from an upside down hurdle in Thurles to the Gold Cup. But in terms of immediate challenges that match is so far off that it's irrelevant."

Immediate concerns are tomorrow's match in Mullingar and the medium-term need to wrap up promotion, something he can't allow himself take for granted.

"There are plenty of banana skins and I know the only way we're going to make headlines in Division Two is by losing matches. And Offaly over the years have been vulnerable to surprise results."

He's under few illusions. His previous tenure in Offaly guarantees as much. "Back then I started with the league with a win over Tipp in Nenagh before a huge crowd. But within three and a half months I had my P45. Last Sunday there were scarcely 400 people in Birr. It's a different challenge this time around.

"No matter who's involved - sports scientists, nutritionists, psychologists - it makes no difference unless you win. Everyone's judged by results."